When telling the tale of when the pop music industry took its most drastic turn since the inception of Elvis or the Beatles, I will always point out the Seattle grunge movement. Then I will use a classic example of, "It was the end of the Warrants and the begining of the Nirvanas." Warrant for many was regarded as one of, if not the, last glamour rock band to surface before the teenagers began rejecting the happy go-lucky rockstars who celebrated their living in excess. Many people who remember those years can easily point out that it was BECAUSE of the Warrants that there was so much room for the dark sounds of the Sound Gardens and Stone Temple Pilots, pointing out that Warrant was one too many bands forced on us by the record companies who were trying to milk the glam genre for all it was worth. Some would say that Warrant was just a lesser Poison, and when they say that, they don't mean it to sing Poison's praises either.No doubt that these arguements have validity to them--there was certainly no seats reserved for the members of Warrant in the 1994 MTV music awards or the Grammies for that matter. Nobody was using their material on rock radio, MTV/VH1, or even record store sound systems. The only place that probably made a place for Warrant was strip clubs, simply because of their song Cherry Pie which was just an absurd double entendre that supplied material for bands like Steel Panther to make a fruitful career out of ridiculing that genre with tongue firmly planted in cheek.
Regardless of society's outlook on Warrant, I was still a fan, I liked the songs; they were accessable to me and I always loved it when my older brothers would play their tapes on the boom box. Of course, I was 9 years old, and I grew out of them by the tender age of 10.
All that aside, I wish to give you the concert review that changed my mind about Warrant completely.
I was 18, a senior in high school when I saw the ad that Warrant was playing at Big Shots Pool Hall in Sacramento. Because of how difficult it was to get any of my friends to join me to see a band like Warrant in 1999, I had to go alone. Being openly into a band like Warrant in the late 90's was illegal, it was a dirty secret, and that genre hadn't become loveable in it's irony yet.
I was in the bathroom washing my hands because I touched something in that dirty little pool hall and I looked over at a non-descript, unassuming man who looked like the rest of the washed up crowd awaiting to see a has-been rock band 8 years after their passing. The man was about 5'7'', balding and had a beer gut and road stop gas station biker clothes. The man also had the distinctive froggy looking eyes that I remember so vividly. It was the singer Jani Lane. The 8 years since his last hit had not been good to him: he looked like 25 years had passed and he was not doing well. I greeted him anyway, "Hi, you're Jani Lane! I am a big fan, and uhhhhh good luck." Nervous, I couldn't think of anything else. He smiled, shook my hand and asked, "How old are you?....18?!" What, are you in a time bubble? You didn't bring any chicks did you?... Ha, I'm just kidding, thanks for coming to our show, we're going to rock this joint tonight my friend." With a smile and a wink, he then walked on stage and played Dirty Rotten Filthy Stinkin' Rich.
The band was dead on, note for note, they nailed the songs and they had a great sound. They too looked like many more years had passed then had really passed, but they were on their game. In their day, they were not considered axe-masters, they were not musically innovative or even considered that good at what they do, but dang they were on their game that night. They rocked that crowd of 80 aging rockers their full $15 worth. But what I really enjoyed from that show was not the exactness of delivery of the songs, or even necessarily watching a band simply out of nostalgia or singing along to campy 80's pop-metal love tunes... it was Jani Lane. He was one of the greatest frontmen I had ever seen.
As much as the band went from being poster dolls for women to being stage eyesores, they were extremely entertaining because of the completely unexpected sense of humor by Jani Lane. Coming from a genre that tended to take themselves very seriously and only made jokes at slutty women's expense, Jani Lane was surprisingly very self-depricating. "I want to address the men tonight. When I wrote this song, I was a wimp surrounded by women with hot underwear and I wanted some of that underwear. I hate the song and the record company bought my soul for it. But I know it helped most you guys get laid once, so you owe me a sing-along." He then proceeded to play his Power ballad, "Heaven". He ripped apart and made jokes about a lot of his songs, in a way that made you just let go of your folded arms and raise your fist and sing along to Uncle Tom's Cabin. Much like how we all forgive Ricky Henderson's cocky attitude because he was so funny, I was able to forgive Jani Lane for writing metal for teenage girls.
He often took his wireless mic into the crowd where he spent about 10% of the show entertaining from the pits and shaking hands with the audience and giving high fives. While in the center of the crowd, he was doing some story telling and set up his song I Saw Red. "A lot of these songs we sing are really stories that are complete bull shit, but this girl, well, I still hate this bitch." Once he was done, he ramped up his biggest number with, "This fuckin' song I wrote on the back of a pizza box as a joke to the record label making fun of what other bands were selling... Ironically it became our largest song. And as much as I want to hate it, awww hell, its still fun to play." And from the crowd he sang Cherry Pie, as he thanked the strip clubs for sending his royalties.
The band had no problem playing covers: they did Queen's We Will Rock You, and even gave a salute to their old cronies Razzle who now call themselves Lit by performing what at the time was their huge current hit, Worst Enemy. It was after all that Jani Lane said to the crowd, "So many other bands from our time just leave the stage and wait for the crowd to give them some ego boost demanding more songs, we're not going to do that bull shit to you guys, so we will play every song we will play right now that we would have done." They then closed the show with Black Sabbath, War Pigs... and I will add they did a fine job of a very tricky song.
Jani Lane was not a singer who you just had to watch his power live. He sang like he saw his high school choir teacher in the back of the crowd judging him. His voice may have been better suited going the direction of a soft rock love ballad guy like Richard Marx.
Don't get me wrong, he was very gifted, but he didn't possess the operatic talents of a Freddie Mercury or a Bruce Dickenson. He didn't have the power of his contemporaries David Coverdale or Sammy Hagar and he certainly lacked the serrated edged voice of Jeff Keith or an Axl Rose. But he had one thing those guys don't really have, which is an incredible stage humor. I felt like I watched a comedy show with rock n' roll, and I left completely satisfied. Jani Lane was the Rodney Dangerfield of rock music.
When the show was over, I hung around and bought an old drum head from the merch guy for $20 if he could get me back to get the band to sign it. Of course most people would argue that was a bad deal for me, but he made the deal and I got to see Jani one more time.
"Jani, that show was awesome, one of the best shows I have ever seen, pure entertainment, rock n' roll at its finest." He looked at me with a sincere thank you and a big smile.
13 years and hundreds of concerts later, I still stand by that statement I said to Jani Lane. Now I'll never get to see another Warrant show with Jani Lane, but I am grateful I did get to see one show. Most people who remember them will remember them for their candy pop-metal tunes for girls, and rightfully so, but seeing them in 1999 gave me much more to recognize them for. Still I will keep my windows rolled up when a Warrant song comes on car's mp3 player, and they may not have a nook waiting for them in Cleveland's Rock n' Roll hall of fame, but I will always remember how good of a show they put on. May your rest in peace Jani Lane, I hope heaven wasn't too far away after all.
